INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS XLI 



saw him cringe, and as the white smoke drifted 

 off to leeward he fell heavilj' completely riddled 

 by shot into the break before me." 



Driving- along- the lane we saw the two pond holes on 

 the Minthorne ridge, and further to the left, nestled in the 

 valley the homestead of Mr. Crissey, a large square man- 

 sion with spreading barn, ample sheds and towering silo 

 where our good friend had been born and over 

 which he still kept a fatherly eye to see that his tenants 

 maintained the property. Here was certainly no out-at- 

 the elbow agriculture as the two hundred and thirty-five 

 acres were all in a high state of cultivation. 



Now we found the main road, and within a few miles 

 had driven off it again on to the grass land which sur- 

 rounds the beautiful Wickham Pond, of some one 

 hundred and fifty acres, going by way of the 

 Big Swamp and the Hell Hole. And we could re-echo 

 Forester's words uttered years before and put into the 

 mouth of the Commodore in the chapter on the Quail : 



"Certainly, this is a very lovely country", 

 as we "gazed with quiet eye over the same beautiful vale 

 with the clear expanse of the pond in the middle fore- 

 ground, and the wild hoary mountains framing the rich 

 landscapes in the distance", and a few minutes later as 

 we motored back over the hills my mind turned to those 

 beautiful words of Forester describing the Warwick 

 country : 



"There is no lovelier scenery on earth than that 

 through which the homeward road of the sports- 

 man lay, along the northern slope of the Warwick 

 mountain, with a mile's breadth of soft velvet 

 meadows stretching out green and gentle to the 

 left; the bright waters of the Wawayanda flash- 

 ing in golden reaches to the level sunbeams far 

 on their northern verge, and beyond the stream a 

 long range of many colored woodlands, half veiled 

 by the purple haze of autumn, and the blue 

 summits of Mount Adam and Mount Eve soar- 

 ing, distinct in their dark azure against the 

 cloudless sky of Autumn." 



Eealization is the greatest pleasure and here on that 

 bright summer's day we were on the high uplands of whicli 



